Kevin
Meaning
handsome, beloved
Goes by Kev
The story
Kevin began as the Old Irish Cóemgein, beloved birth, and for most of its history it belonged to one man: the sixth-century hermit of Glendalough, a patron saint of Dublin, remembered in legend for holding his hand out in prayer so steadily that a blackbird nested in his palm, and he kept it open until the chicks flew. The name stayed almost entirely Irish until the mid-twentieth century, then made up for lost time. In America it went from absent to everywhere within a generation and held strong through the century's end. Europe caught the wave next: France's top boys' name for years in the early 1990s, with Home Alone's small hero along for the ride, and a flood so high in Germany that the language coined a word for names loved that suddenly. Fashion rushes; the saint just held still.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Kevin peaked in the 1960s.
Popularity in Brazil
56,596 people · the #520 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 3,584 · median age 16
Among people named Kevin living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 5,687 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Kevin
People given the name Kevin in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 to 1999. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Kevin deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Kevin truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Kevin fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Kevin travels
Irish American · a name that exploded in America decades before catching on in Ireland
Filipino American · handsome, beloved (a common Filipino American English name)
Vietnamese American · handsome, beloved (a common refugee-generation English name, sometimes paired with Khoa)
Chinese American · so common among Chinese American men it has become a cultural touchstone of the ABC generation
Global crossover · handsome, beloved birth (from Caoimhin); had an outsized 1990s popularity boom in France and Germany, jokingly nicknamed 'Kevinism'
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Kevin · English-Brazilian names · Global crossover names · Irish American baby names · Filipino American baby names · Vietnamese American baby names · Chinese American baby names
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